


Foundations Of Love

by Noodle_64



Category: Alternate Universe - Fandom, Major League Soccer RPF, National Hockey League RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-07-31 00:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20106040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noodle_64/pseuds/Noodle_64
Summary: When Martin Jones signs with the San Jose Sharks and decides to go with a house and not an apartment, he finds one but it needs some updating. Little does he know when he hires CW Builders and meets his general contractor, Chris Wondolowski that there's going to be more than repairs happening in his life.





	1. Oh No, He's Hot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cupcaketoffoli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupcaketoffoli/gifts).

Even though Martin Jones had appreciated being the backup to Jonathan Quick on the L.A. Kings, it was about time for him to strike out and actually be a starting goalie for an NHL team. There was nothing acrimonious about his departure from the team. The Sharks had been able to offer him what the Kings couldn't and if nothing else, he was leaving that team a Stanley Cup winner and looking forward to the future.

He had met the team officially and the initial press conference was now over with which meant he was free to start looking for real estate.

Some people had suggested just getting an apartment, others recommended that he settle on a house since he had the means to do so now (which was more than a slightly weird feeling to contemplate).

Finding a house in a pretty quiet neighborhood had been his goal and he'd found an older house but at lot of the cabinets and flooring and other accents of the hours were pretty dated. Some of them were cosmetic things that didn't need much other than some new hardware on some drawers in one of the bathrooms and a new light fixture but the colors of the carpets in the upstairs were...a sight, to say the least.

Erik Karlsson had recommended a couple of different contractors he could call and the only one to return his call was Chris Wondolowski, owner of CW Builders so here he was, waiting at the house to meet the contractor and see what he had to say.

Since money wasn't really an issue for him, Martin wasn't too concerned about the cost of getting some of this stuff fixed up. He wasn't someone who spent a lot of money on frivolous things and he'd already gotten himself a new car so he was perfectly okay with putting some money into his new house.

Caught up in his thoughts, the knock at the door caught him off guard. It was weird to be in a completely empty house but Martin didn't want to move anything in until the floors were done and the walls painted because he'd just have to move it again anyway. He hustled over to the door and pulled it open, a friendly greeting on his lips but his words died in his throat.

On the other side of the door, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt rolled up to the elbows with a white t-shirt on underneath it and sturdy dark brown boots, was very easily the best looking man Martin had ever seen.

His skin was tanned and he had close cropped brownish-black hair with friendly brown eyes that met Martin's light blue ones levelly. He extended a hand, which Martin shook, almost in a daze which wasn't helped when the contractor directed a smile that crinkled up the corners of his eyes right at him.

_'Oh no, he's hot',_ Martin couldn't help thinking.

"I'm Chris Wondolowski. You must be Martin Jones."

"Yes, that's me." the hockey player said, managing to sound normal as he reminded himself to actually let go of Chris' hand so he wasn't acting like a weirdo. "Come on in and you can take a look around."

Chris stepped inside after tapping his boots off, which Martin appreciated. It was a sign of respect for the house and he had a good feeling about Chris already, just from this small action.

"Looks like this place was built in the late 80's." Chris commented as he looked around, taking in all of the details as well as the style of the place.

"That's what the realtor tells me. I like the neighborhood a lot and don't mind fixing things up if that's what it takes."

Chris laughed warmly and Martin had to firmly tell himself to get a grip. This guy probably had a wife and kids waiting for him at home.

"Yeah, well you got hockey money so you can go as crazy as you want to."

Martin was surprised. Clearly Chris knew precisely who he was.

"You watch hockey?" He asked as Chris pulled out a tape measure to take some measurements of the kitchen counters.

The contractor nodded, after making some notations. "I go to games whenever I can. Got a couple jerseys from my brothers for Christmas."

That was interesting information and that meant Martin might possibly see Chris at a game. Not that it mattered because he was off limits.

"How're you liking San Jose so far? Northern California is a lot different than Southern California." Chris sounded genuinely interested to know what Martin thought of the new city and he thought for a moment before he answered.

"I like it. I'm not sure where the good places to eat are yet but that'll come with time."

Chris seemed to light up when Martin mentioned food. "I can make you a list." He offered. "I cook a lot in my spare time. Mostly it just ends up going to my brothers and their families since I always make too much for one person but I like to try things out and they're a good test audience. I definitely know where the good places to go are and which places you should avoid."

It was a kind offer and it made Martin smile. The comment about cooking too much for one person also didn't escape his notice. "You don't have to, but if you do I'd appreciate it."

Waving off Martin's words, the pen in Chris' hand was already flashing across a fresh sheet of paper. "Trust me, give me five minutes and I can come up with about 20 different places you can try."

"Man cannot live on In-N-Out alone." Martin joked and that made Chris snort.

"Isn't that the truth, as tempting as it is." the contractor shrugged as he handed Martin the list.

It was neatly divided into different categories. The Mexican restaurants were grouped together, followed by some Asian restaurants, some diners, then a couple of food trucks. For those, he had listed the streets where they were usually parked.

"That should be enough to keep you getting food fatigue for a little while at least." He said with good humor.

Martin appreciated this a lot and tucked the list immediately into his pocket before checking his watch.

"I have a meeting in a half an hour but it shouldn't take long. If you hit the little lock button on the lock box, it'll lock up after you."

Chris nodded immediately. "Of course. I'll take the measurements I need, come up with some design ideas and then we can start to hammer out the details. Pun intended."

Groaning dramatically, Martin couldn't help laughing a little even though that pun was _awful_. "Sounds good. Thanks for coming by, Chris."

As he made his way out the door and shut it behind himself, the goalie took a deep breath.

This could get interesting.


	2. Tanner's Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin gets some advice from a friend.

"How're you settling in?"

Martin considered the question being asked of him by one of his best friends, Tanner Pearson. They had been on the Kings together and though they weren't team mates any more, they would always be close.

"Good, I think..."

Tanner knew him well enough to hear that hesitation in his voice and pounced immediately. "You think? What's going on?"

Sighing as he dragged a hand over his face, Martin debated if he should even say something about his silly little infatuation with Chris but Tanner would weasel it out of him one way or another so he might as well concede defeat gracefully at this point in time.

"The contractor came over to take some measurements the other day and he's hot."

There was silence from the other end of the phone for a moment and then Tanner started laughing.

"Shut up, you asshole." Martin grumbled but he should have known that Tanner wouldn't be able to resist seeing the humor in the situation.

"He must really be something to turn _your_ head, Jonesy."

Martin was taken aback by that and wondered what on earth Tanner could be insinuating with that comment.

"What the hell are you talking about?" the goalie asked as he flopped onto the hotel bed he was currently calling his own while construction on the house was taking place (as soon as he and Chris finalized the plans).

"You don't really go out much and you pretty much just focus on hockey." Tanner said in a matter of fact tone. "I've worried about you sometimes because you can't live and breathe hockey all day, every day before it starts to take a toll on you. At least you've got something else to think about now!"

"With my luck, he's probably straight." Martin said gloomily.

Love and dating had never really gone too well for him and even if by some miracle Chris liked men, be he gay or bisexual, Martin wasn't about to hold his breath because assuredly, the odds would not be in his favor in this situation.

He wasn't the most confident person when it came to his looks or his ability to actually hold someone's interest for more than a couple of months. The people he had dated in the past had left him feeling far worse about himself than before he'd met them and though an unconscious decision, he had pretty much eschewed any company of a romantic nature. It just wasn't for him at the moment and perhaps once he retired, he could give some thought to it.

But Chris Wondolowski was on his mind more and more these days and he hoped that he wouldn't give any sign of that. It would be entirely too mortifying to contemplate if Chris managed to figure out that Martin had a little 'thing' about him.

"Hey, don't even start with the gloom and doom shit." Tanner said bracingly. "You don't know until you do some investigating."

"How am I going to investigate if he likes men or not, dipstick? I don't think that's something I can punch into Google and get a result."

"You could always wear the black pants that make your ass look amazing and bend over in front of him to pick something up." Tanner suggested brightly and Martin, who had gone to take a drink of water, sputtered in protest.

"Tanner! Jesus, I can't do that! He'd probably just think I was a klutz."

"Well that's only if you keep dropping things. If you do it once and can gauge his reaction, then you might at least know if you need to appear with water every so often and maybe cookies once in a while, or if you should just stay away and let him get on with things."

Martin mulled that over. If he took Tanner's advice, then he might actually know for certain but he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to. As silly as his daydreams were, it might almost be worse if he actually knew that there was no chance in hell that Chris would be interested in him. His ego was fragile enough at the moment as it was.

"If you don't do it, I'll send Toff up there." Tanner warned and Martin huffed.

Tyler Toffoli was the third member of their little group, whom the other Kings had called the 3 musketeers when they had all lived together in the same house. Martin knew good and well that if Tanner said something to him, Tyler would definitely try to come up to San Jose and 'help' Martin with Chris, which would just be embarrassing for everyone concerned.

"I can try." Martin said finally, picking at the blanket on the bed with longer fingers. It was something he tended to do when he was anxious about something and this definitely qualified. "But if I do and he does't react, then you drop it. Okay?"

"Okay." Tanner agreed and Martin wondered how he allowed himself to get dragged into situations like this. It hadn't even been his idea but he had said he would give it a go and he was a man of his word.

He had a meeting with Chris in the morning and just hoped that he wouldn't make too big of an idiot of himself. It was hard to look Chris in the eye and not sound like a moron when he tried to talk to him.

"I'm going to go before you convince me to bend and snap like in 'Legally Blonde'." Martin joked and Tanner snickered.

"Hey, whatever works. I'll talk to you soon, Jonesy."

"Night, Pearsy."

Ending the call, Martin groaned as he tossed his phone onto the bed beside him. This was bound to blow up in his face. Taking Tanner or Toff's advice usually ended up with interesting results and not all of them were good. But given that he was going to have to work with Chris closely on the house, Martin needed to either set this crush firmly aside, or figure out what he wanted to do, if anything. Just because Chris could potentially like men, it didn't mean he would automatically like _Martin_.

He got to his feet and headed over to his suitcase. The pants in question were packed and he might as well make the best case for himself that he could. He'd just have to see what happened in the morning.


	3. Bend, No Snap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin gets a chance to implement Tanner's suggestion.

Martin looked at himself in the mirror and sighed softly. He couldn't believe that he had allowed Tanner to talk him into the ridiculous idea but if he wanted a way to confirm if he had any shot at all, this was all he had and he hadn't been able to think of something better in the interim.

Smoothing down the white button down shirt he had tucked into the black pants, he examined himself critically in the mirror. He supposed he would pass muster and it wasn't so formal that he would seem out of place when he met with Chris to go over some of the design ideas for his house.

He had agreed to meet the contractor at his office so they could go over the possible design schemes as well as see samples of flooring and make sure that his vision for the house was brought to life properly.

"Let's get this over with." He sighed to himself before snagging his car keys on his way out to his car.

The radio was a welcome distraction as he made his way through the unfamiliar streets of San Jose, driving slightly under the speed limit to ensure that he wasn't going to go past the street he needed to turn down to reach Chris' office.

His phone gave him instructions and he exhaled in relief when he saw the sign for CW Builders, pulling into a parking space right outside the front door.

He was sightly early, but Martin preferred that to being late. He had been raised that other people's time was valuable and to be late was to be highly disrespectful to that person.

Patting himself down one more time, out of habit more than actually wanting to make sure he looked alright for this meeting, Martin unfolded his lanky limbs from the vehicle and climbed out, locking it behind him.

A man was sitting at the front desk and looked up with a friendly smile that somehow reminded Martin of Chris. "You can go right on back to Chris' office, Mr. Jones." he said cheerfully, pointing down a hallway to the left. "Second door on the right."

It appeared that a few people worked here, which Martin was somehow glad of. If Chris was as capable a contractor as he seemed, then he deserved to have lots of work thrown his way.

Heeding the instructions he was given, Martin meekly made his way down the hall, hesitantly tapping on the door before poking his head around it.

There, sitting at his computer in slacks, a white shirt with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows and a vest on over the top, was Chris Wondolowski and the phrase 'climb him like a tree' came into Martin's mind. He wasn't sure if he'd heard Tanner or Tyler use that particular vernacular but he had to fight from snickering at it.

Chris glanced up from his computer screen, immediately beaming when he saw Martin. "Hey, Martin! Come on in. I was just tweaking something and it's printing out right now."

"Hey Chris." Martin returned, closing the door behind himself as he sat down in the chair directly across from the contractor.

On the desk were different layouts as well as design choices for his house and Martin was enthralled to see all of the different possibilities. It was going to depend on what he wanted to do and he was excited as well as slightly intimidated by the task of actually having to pick counter tops and light fixtures and paint colors.

"It looks a little crazy right now but I'll walk you through it." Chris chuckled when he saw Martin's expression.

He asked intelligent questions and even though Martin had to make an effort to not just stare at him, the goalie was rather impressed with Chris. He wanted to know about Martin's every day routine so they could decide if a mud room should be put in near the garage so he could put all of his hockey pads and equipment in there instead of hauling everything through the house to the laundry room. Chris was after functionality as well as style and Martin could appreciate that attention to detail.

Even though he had always supposed that he didn't have a particular style, Chris was able to narrow things down. Martin had grown up in North Vancouver and even without realizing it, he drifted toward what Chris called a "Pacific Northwest Coastal" style in the colors as well as some of the personal items that were important to him. He had some First Nations carvings that he wanted on the walls.

"I think what you might want to do is keep the walls pretty neutral." Chris suggested. "That way, you can add color with the furniture as well as the art pieces. Then they're the focal point and not the color of the wall."

Martin hadn't thought of it that way but that was exactly why he was working with someone and not trying to figure all of this out on his own.

After choosing some flooring as well as the colors for all the walls in the house, Chris declared that they could look at counter tops and other items once the flooring and painting were almost done. Martin was overwhelmed and he supposed that it showed.

"I'm looking forward to seeing this come together." He said as Chris walked him to the door of his office.

"I am too. I haven't gotten to design for a space like this so it should be fun."

The pen on Chris' clipboard slipped and without thinking about it. Martin leaned right over and scooped it up, handing it back to Chris.

There was a strange look on the contractor's face, almost like he'd been staring and realized it. Had Tanner's plan actually _worked_? Martin offered a smile to Chris and immediately got one in return.

"I'll let you know as soon as I'm ready to start the flooring." Chris said as they reached the front desk area.

"Get some stuff done?" the man from early asked and Chris nodded, indicating him.

"Martin, this is my brother Steve. He's the jack of all trades."

"Meaning I just sit on my ass all day and answer the phone and make sure Chris doesn't forget where he's supposed to be next." Steve quipped and Martin couldn't help laughing as he shook the hand Steve offered him.

He had been right, when he'd been reminded of Chris when he saw Steve. The brothers looked enough alike to have some family resemblance but Chris was darker in skin tone as well as a little taller than Steve.

"Yeah, but you do it so well!" Chris teased and Steve sighed.

"No respect." he said as he shook his head. "Have a good day, Martin."

Waving to the Wondolowski brothers, he made his way back out to his car and chuckled ruefully as he left the parking lot.

Tanner was going to be smug for a least a year over this.


	4. One Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tanner offers more advice and Martin makes a choice.

As he had predicted, Tanner was entirely too smug when Martin had relayed the events of the meeting with Chris.

"So he might like men." His best friend said gleefully and the goalie sighed.

"Might. I don't know for sure."

"I'd say that look is worth you bringing him water when it's a hot day so he doesn't dehydrate while he's working."

Martin wanted to roll his eyes but knew that Tanner wouldn't be able to see it anyway since they were talking on the phone.

"That's transparent as fuck. If he isn't interested in men that way, I don't want to make things awkward."

Tanner gave an inelegant snort. "You could also just be being nice, too. He can take it however he wants to and that's another way for you to gauge the situation."

Even though his friends were in California, Martin had the feeling that they were going to be quite involved in trying to help him ascertain if Chris could potentially be someone he could date or not.

At the moment they were waiting for the paint to finish being mixed and Chris was hoping to get started within the next day or two. It was indeed hot in California at the moment and perhaps Tanner wasn't so off the mark with his suggestion after all.

"I guess." Martin conceded.

"Just try it. At worst, it goes over his head and at best, maybe he can show you some of the good places to eat in San Jose himself."

Martin had told Tanner about the list that Chris had so helpfully provided him and his friend was of the firm opinion that he should wait and perhaps have Chris take him to one or more of these establishments. It was hard not to daydream about that, especially with it being the off-season from hockey. He had been hitting the gym and doing what he could to prepare for the upcoming games but he still had far too much time to think about warm brown eyes and a friendly smile belonging to a certain contractor.

"Okay, okay. I'll try it. He should be starting the painting pretty soon."

"You got this Marty!" Tanner said cheerfully and Martin wondered if he should caution his friend about getting too enthusiastic about something that may or may not occur but it wouldn't be any use. Tanner was gung ho about everything and that was simply the way he was.

"Thanks, Pearsy. I'll call you with any updates."

Hitting the red 'end call' button, Martin wondered how he had allowed himself to get to this point even. This was more effort than he could recall putting into a crush in recent memory.

But Chris Wondolowski was unlike anyone he could recall meeting and perhaps that was why the man was so firmly entrenched in his thoughts. Martin had met a lot of people over the years and none of them were like Chris.

Plugging his phone in the charge, he was happy to see a text message from Chris come in, simply saying that the paint was done and he would be starting the job in the morning.

A dollar store was nearby the hotel and Martin, in an effort to make good on his agreement with Tanner, headed over to gather some bottles of water together as well as some assorted snacks (he had no idea what kinds of things Chris would like) and returned to his room with them before he could talk himself out of the deed,

Even if Chris could tell what was going on, Martin wouldn't hang around and make a nuisance of himself. He would simply offer water and something to eat while taking a look at how things were going. It was normal for any homeowner to want to check the progress of the project and Chris had even encouraged him to stop by whenever he wanted to make sure things were coming together the way he wished them to.

He had a small cooler and could use some ice from the machine down the hall to make sure the water was cold before he took it over with him. He decided on going over in the afternoon. Showing up first thing in the morning might make him seem a tad too eager and that wouldn't do. He would have to play this cool.

Martin wasn't good at doing that normally. If he was interested in someone, he was embarrassingly transparent about it, which sometimes meant he got rather unkind reactions and it left him wary of trying to show or tell someone he was interested in them.

But he couldn't live his life in fear forever. He needed to conquer that and stop assuming that everyone he came into contact with and he developed some kind of attraction to was going to hurt him.

Chris seemed like a genuinely kind person and Martin believed he would be the kind of person who would be nice about letting him down easy, if that was what needed to happen.

Taking a chance was going to be a risk, even a small chance like this but there was something about Chris that seemed to draw Martin in and he _needed_ to know.


	5. Gettin' Thirsty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martin and Chris are both thirsty. For different reasons.

With his little cooler in his car, Martin had to talk himself into going over to the house several times before he actually left the parking lot of the hotel. He was firmly convinced Chris was going to see right through this little escapade and perhaps refuse to finish the work on Martin's house (even though a contract had been signed), which he knew not to be true.

It was a hot day and finally, it was too warm to sit there so he either had to go back inside or else he needed to stop being a chickenshit about this matter and deal with it.

Grumbling to himself the entire way over about meddling friends, he hoped that he wouldn't be bothering Chris in any way by stopping by.

Martin wasn't sure when Chris had gotten started and how much would be done but as Chris had pointed out, flooring could look a little different upon delivery and it would be better to know before too much of it was put down if the color wasn't going to be right or if it was potentially going to clash with anything.

He was headed toward the front door when he heard a commotion coming from the backyard, like someone was out there with a power saw of some sort and he altered his steps to follow the side of the house and around to the back gate. It only latched (Chris was going to put in something that had an actual locking mechanism) so it was easy for Martin to open and slip into the backyard.

What he saw before him had Martin thirsty but in an entirely different way from what Chris was undoubtedly feeling at the moment.

In the hot weather, Chris had removed his shirt, revealing a tattoo on his right side. The design was that of a dream catcher with two words Martin couldn't place, 'Bau Daigh' under it. Obviously it had some significance to Chris in order for him to have it permanently on his skin. He was in excellent shape and in the vernacular that was popular at the moment, Martin was definitely thirsty for Chris Wondolowski.

He might've stood there for who knows how long if Chris hadn't turned around to lay out some pieces of trim he was cutting down to fit specific sections of the house. He beamed happily upon seeing Martin, which really wasn't helping the hockey player's predicament any.

"Hey, Martin! I've got a couple of the rooms painted already if you want to take a look." Chris said, motioning toward the inside and Martin was temporarily startled out of his lusting after his contractor.

"Already? That was quick!"

Chris shrugged broad shoulders and Martin's eyes were again drawn to the man's toned torso. This really wasn't fair and Tanner was going to mock him for weeks.

"I got started around 6 this morning."

Remembering the cooler, Martin was glad that he had remembered it. Chris was obviously sweating (which sent his delinquent mind into very interesting directions imagining other scenarios where Chris might be sweaty) and he didn't know if he'd brought anything with him or if he'd just go get himself lunch at a fast food place and then get back to work.

"It's like a damn oven out here and since I wanted to see how things were coming, I brought you this stuff." Martin said, handing the cooler over.

"You're a life saver." Chris sighed as soon as he opened it and saw there was water and better yet, it was cold from the ice Martin had put in the cooler. "I forgot my water bottle at home this morning and I was going to go to a gas station to get some pretty soon."

Feeling proud of himself, Martin headed inside to go and take a look at the two rooms Chris had already gotten painted. Things were going to be nice, he had a feeling, especially if Chris' work ethic continued on this way. With the trim cut and laid out, all that would have to be done was have the carpet installed and then the trim could go down.

"It looks great." Martin affirmed when he returned to the backyard where Chris was taking a well deserved break with some water and one of the packets of jerky Martin had decided to snag at the last minute.

"Yeah? It'll look even better when we've got the carpet down but it's a start and if I get most of the trim measured and cut in the next couple of days, then it'll make things even easier once the carpet gets here."

It was a sensible plan and Chris obviously had thought things through before he'd gotten started, which Martin was glad of. A plan meant no time would be wasted and he wouldn't be paying for anything that wasn't necessary to getting the house done.

He couldn't think of anything else to say and figured he should probably take his leave. "I'll let you get back to it, but I think it's going to look awesome when it's done." Martin said sincerely, turning to leave.

However, he felt a hand curl around his wrist and he stopped, turning back to face Chris who was a lot closer now. There was something almost shy in the expression on the contractor's face. "Thanks for all of that. You didn't have to." Chris said, waving his free hand toward the snacks and water that Martin had brought.

"It was no trouble at all." Martin was surprised he managed to sound like anything even approaching normal. He was all too aware of the feeling of Chris' calloused fingers against his skin.

A grin tugged the corners of Chris' mouth upward. "Any time you want to bring me water, please do."

Was he imagining the slightly flirtatious tone in the contractor's voice?

"Depends on how nice the trim looks."

That made Chris crack up, the corners of his eyes wrinkling up and he released Martin's hand very slowly.

"I'll have to see what I can do. Have a good day, Martin."

"You too, Chris."

Beating a hasty retreat to his car, Martin cranked the air conditioner up as high as it would go and took himself back to the hotel where he simply laid on his bed for almost 20 minutes. Had he imagined that? Or had Tanner once again been right? He wasn't _ever_ going to hear the end of this.


End file.
